System and method for assisting consideration of selection including obtaining degree-of-necessity of a question from answer data

• US 7,974,872 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2002
• Issued: 07/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshio Katayama, Tsukasa Makita
• Original Assignee: Toshio Katayama, Tsukasa Makita
• Inventors: Katayama, Toshio, Makita, Tsukasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett; Scott L
• Application Number:
  US10/200,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20030070180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,269 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/30 of unstructured textual data document management systems G06F16/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A system (and method) assists consideration of selection that recommends selection candidates to a considerer who is considering selection in a certain field in order to assist determination of selection with which the considerer is satisfied. A question concerning the field is sent to a considerer and answer data is received from the considerer by the system. A degree-of-significance of each evaluation item in the field is estimated from the answer data. A degree-of-recommendation representing to which degree each selection candidate can be recommended to the considerer is calculated from evaluation data for each evaluation item with respect to each piece of selection candidate data in the field and the degree-of-significance of the considerer with respect to each evaluation item. Then, degrees of recommendation of selection candidate data in the field are presented to the considerer without change or after processing the data.

Claims

1. A system for assisting consideration of selection that asks a considerer, who is considering at least one selection out of selection candidates in at least one field, questions concerning a field of consideration and assists decision making of the considerer by using answers to questions, said system comprising:

a storage device in which electronic data is storable and which has stored therein at least one piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration, evaluation data for a plurality of evaluation items with respect to each piece of said selection candidate data, at least one piece of question data concerning the field of consideration, said questions being classified into at least one class of question, option data with respect to each piece of said question data, and points of degree-of-necessity for classes of question with respect to each piece of said option data;

a receiving unit for receiving at least one piece of option data as answer data of the considerer in response to said at least one question concerning the field of consideration, said receiving unit includes a question determining unit for receiving option data as said answer data in response to at least one question to the considerer, obtaining the points of degree-of-necessity for each class of question with respect to the option data as said answer data from the storage device, calculating a degree-of-necessity for each class of question from the obtained points of degree-of-necessity for each class of question and determining a subsequent question that belongs to the class whose calculated degree-of-necessity satisfies a certain fixed standard, wherein at least one degree-of-necessity is calculated by means of a function of points of degree-of-necessity with respect to said answer data in response to a plurality of questions;

a degree-of-significance estimating unit for estimating a degree-of-significance that the considerer attaches to each of the plurality of evaluation items in comparison to the other of said plurality of evaluation items in the field of consideration from said answer data of the considerer, wherein said degree-of-significance is estimated by a function of said answer data;

a degree-of-recommendation calculating unit for calculating a degree-of-recommendation representing to which degree each selection candidate is recommended to the considerer from evaluation data for each evaluation item with respect to each piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration stored in said storage device, and said degree-of-significance of the considerer with respect to each evaluation item estimated by said degree-of-significance estimating unit; and

a presenting unit for presenting said degree-of-recommendation of each said selection candidate in said field of consideration,

wherein the selection candidate is ranked according to the degree-of-recommendation.

2. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein a degree-of-significance calculating function for calculating the degree-of-significance for each evaluation item from answer data of a considerer received by said receiving unit is stored in said storage device.

3. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein a degree-of-recommendation calculating function for calculating the degree-of-recommendation of each selection candidate from evaluation data and the degree-of-significance for each evaluation item with respect to each selection candidate data is stored in said storage device.

4. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, further comprising:

a retrial processing unit for, when the considerer is dissatisfied with the degree-of-recommendation of selection candidates calculated by said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit and/or a result of a comparison thereof specifying causes of dissatisfaction, extracting questions due to the causes, receiving re-answer data for questions, and recalculating the degree-of-significance and the degree-of-recommendation based on said re-answer data.

5. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein said degree-of-significance estimating unit and said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit, respectively, calculate a degree-of-significance for each evaluation item and a degree-of-recommendation for each selection candidate each time answer data in response to each question is received by said receiving unit, and

wherein degrees of recommendation of all pieces of selection candidate data in a field of consideration are presented without change and/or after processing them each time answer data in response to each question is received by said receiving unit.

6. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit calculates a degree-of-recommendation for each combination of a plurality of pieces of selection candidate data in one of a single field and a plurality of fields.

7. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of considerers are performing consideration of selection of identical contents in a single or a plurality of fields, said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit calculates a degree-of-recommendation of all selection candidates for all of the considerers based on respective answers of each considerer.

8. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein a server provided with at least one of said storage device, receiving unit, degree-of-significance estimating unit and degree-of-recommendation calculating unit is connected with a terminal of said considerer by a communication line and wherein the considerer accesses the server, whereby a degree-of-recommendation of said all pieces of selection candidate data are presented to the considerer without change and/or alter processing.

9. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, further comprising:

a medium for saving or storing answer data of a considerer in a reusable form.

10. The system for assisting consideration of selection according to claim 1, wherein the question determining unit obtains points of stored degree-of-necessity for each class of a question from the option data.

11. A computer-implemented method of assisting consideration of selection that asks a considerer, who is considering at least one selection out of selection candidates in at least one field, questions concerning a field of consideration and assists decision making of the considerer by using answers to questions, comprising:

storing electronic data including at least one piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration, evaluation data for a plurality of evaluation items with respect to each piece of said selection candidate data, at least one piece of question data concerning the field of consideration, said questions being classified into at least one class of question, option data with respect to each piece of said question data, and points of a degree-of-necessity for classes of question with respect to each piece of said option data;

receiving answer data of the considerer in response to said at least one question concerning the field of consideration and receiving option data in response to the at least one question to the considerer, obtaining the points of degree-of-necessity for each class of a question from the option data, calculating a degree-of-necessity for each class of question from the obtained points of degree-of-necessity for each class of question and determining a subsequent question that belongs to the class whose calculated degree-of-necessity satisfies a certain fixed standard, wherein at least one degree-of-necessity is calculated by a function of points of degree-of-necessity with respect to said answer data in response to a plurality of questions;

instructing a processor to estimate a degree-of-significance that the considerer attaches to each of the plurality of evaluation items in comparison to the other of said plurality of evaluation items in the field of consideration from said answer data of the considerer, wherein said degree-of-significance is estimated by a function of said answer data;

instructing a processor to calculate a degree-of-recommendation representing to which degree each selection candidate is recommended to the considerer from evaluation data for each evaluation item with respect to each piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration stored, and said degree-of-significance of the considerer with respect to each evaluation item estimated by said degree-of-significance estimating; and

presenting said degree-of-recommendation of each said selection candidate in said field of consideration,

wherein the selection candidate is ranked according to the degree-of-recommendation.

12. The computer-implemented method of assisting consideration of selection according to claim 11, further comprising:

when the considerer is dissatisfied with the calculated degree-of-recommendation of selection candidates and/or a result of a comparison thereof, specifying causes of dissatisfaction, extracting questions due to the causes, receiving re-answer data for questions, and recalculating a degree-of-significance and a degree-of-recommendation based on said re-answer data.

13. The computer-implemented method of assisting consideration of selection according to claim 11, wherein said estimating a degree-of-significance for each evaluation item and calculating a degree-of-recommendation for each selection candidate are performed each time answer data in response to each question is received, further comprising:

presenting degrees of recommendation of all pieces of selection candidate data in a field of consideration without change and/or after processing them each time answer data in response to each question is received.

14. The computer-implemented method of assisting consideration of selection according to claim 11, wherein said receiving includes receiving answer data in response to first at least one question of a considerer, further comprising:

determining whether to select a question suitable to the considerer as a subsequent question out of the at least one question stored and to receive answer data of the considerer in response to the question, or not to receive answer data from the considerer without selecting a subsequent question.

15. A machine-readable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of machine-readable instructions executable by a digital processing apparatus for assisting consideration of selection for causing a calculating unit that, in order to ask a considerer, who is considering at least one selection out of selection candidates in at least one field, questions concerning a field of consideration and assist decision making of the considerer by using answers to the questions, includes a storage device having stored therein at least one piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration, evaluation data for a plurality of evaluation items with respect to each piece of selection candidate data, at least one piece of question data concerning the field of consideration, said questions being classified into at least one class of question, option data with respect to each piece of said question data, and points of a degree-of-necessity for classes of question with respect to each piece of said answer data to function as:

a receiving unit for receiving at least one piece of option data as answer data of the considerer in response to said at least one question concerning the field of consideration, said receiving unit includes a question determining unit for receiving option data as said answer data in response to at least one question to the considerer, obtaining the points of degree-of-necessity for each class of question with respect to the option data as said answer data from the storage device, calculating a degree-of-necessity for each class of question from the obtained points of degree-of-necessity for each class of question and determining a subsequent question that belongs to the class whose calculated degree-of-necessity satisfies a certain fixed standard, wherein at least one degree-of-necessity is calculated by a function of points of degree-of-necessity with respect to said answer data in response to a plurality of questions;

a degree-of-significance estimating unit for estimating a degree-of-significance that the considerer attaches to each of the plurality of evaluation items in comparison to the other of said plurality of evaluation items in the field of consideration from said answer data of the considerer, wherein said degree-of-significance is estimated by a function of said answer data;

a degree-of-recommendation calculating unit for calculating a degree-of-recommendation representing to which degree each selection candidate is recommended to the considerer from evaluation data for each evaluation item with respect to each piece of selection candidate data in the field of consideration stored in said storage device, and said degree-of-significance of the considerer with respect to each evaluation item estimated by said degree-of-significance estimating unit; and

a presenting unit for presenting said degree-of-recommendation of each said selection candidate in said field of consideration,

wherein the selection candidate is ranked according to the degree-of-recommendation.

16. The storage medium according to claim 15 for causing a calculating unit to further function as:

a retrial processing unit for, when the considerer is dissatisfied with the degree-of-recommendation of selection candidates calculated by said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit and/or a result of a comparison thereof, specifying causes of dissatisfaction, extracting questions due to the causes, receiving re-answer data for questions, and recalculating a degree-of-significance and a degree-of-recommendation based on said re-answer data.

17. The storage medium according to claim 15, wherein said degree-of-significance estimating unit and said degree-of-recommendation calculating unit, respectively, calculate a degree-of-significance for each evaluation item and a degree-of-recommendation for each selection candidate each time answer data in response to each question is received by said receiving unit, and

wherein degrees of recommendation of all pieces of selection candidate data in a field of consideration are presented without change and/or after processing them each time answer data in response to each question is received by said receiving unit.